How Teach For Bangladesh is affecting University student’s perception on educational realities of Bangladesh i | P a g e Report on How Teach For Bangladesh is affecting University student’s perception on educational realities of Bangladesh Prepared for Mr. Tahsan Rahman Khan Senior Lecturer BRAC Business School BRAC University Supervised by Mashrifa Islam Talent Recruitment Manager Teach For Bangladesh Prepared by Sarder Tawhid Imam ID: 10104078 BRAC Business School BRAC University Date of Submission: May 14, 2014 ii | P a g e May 14, 2014 Mr. Tahsan Rahman Khan Senior Lecturer BRAC Business School BRAC University Subject: Submission of Internship Report Dear Sir, With due respect, I am submitting my internship report on “How Teach For Bangladesh is affecting University student’s perception on educational realities of Bangladesh” for your kind evaluation as a part of my requirement of completing the BBA program. I have been working as a Fellow at Teach for Bangladesh during my Internship period for 10 weeks. In this period, I have acquired extensive knowledge of the model of Teach for Bangladesh. As you go through the report, you will find an inclusive overview of Teach For Bangladesh at the organization part of the report. This report hones in on the prevailing mindsets of University students that this model tries to reverse in the hope of this contributing towards eliminating educational inequity. It evaluates the effectiveness of recruitment strategies till date in affecting these prevailing mindsets. In spite of the various limitations faced while preparing the report, I have tried to be as thorough as possible. I sincerely hope that this report fulfills the objectives and requirements of my internship and that it finds your acceptance. I also thank you for your guidance, support and time and should you require any elaboration on any issue, I shall be glad to oblige. Sincerely Yours, ________________________ Sarder Tawhid Imam ID: 10104078 BRAC Business School BRAC University iii | P a g e Acknowledgement Extensive effort and study have been put to make this report into a reality. This would not have been possible without the genuine support and assistance provided by the people whom I approached during the various stages of writing this report. Firstly I would like to express my gratitude to my academic supervisor Mr. Tahsan Rahman Khan, Senior Lecturer, BRAC Business School, BRAC University; for his advice, counseling, direction and help. Without his guidance this report would not have been possible. I am extremely grateful to Maimuna Ahmad, CEO of Teach For Bangladesh for her valuable time and expert insight into the various components of this report. I would also like to thank Ms. Mashrifa Islam, Talent Recruitment Associate for being involved with me throughout my internship period and during the preparation of this report. She introduced me to this topic and also provided me with the data that was required for the completion of this report. And I would also like to thank each and every one in the organization who assisted and guided me in completion of this report. iv | P a g e Executive Summary There is a large educational disparity that exists between the quality of education available to the higher and lower socioeconomic class. There are certain factors that perpetuate this disparity and one of those factors have been identified by the Teach For Bangladesh (TFB) model as being mindsets of the people. The theory of change model accordingly tries to reverse these perpetuating factors and this research tries to assess the extent to which Teach For Bangladesh has been successful in reversing the prevailing mindset factor. Using data from the past recruitment cycle of TFB, a survey questionnaire, study of literature, study of TFB’s strategic plan as well as an in-depth interview with Maimuna, CEO of TFB, this report evaluates the extent to which TFB has been successful in altering University students perception on educational realities of Bangladesh. Study of literature, strategic plan of TFB and conversation with Maimuna identifies the mindsets of University students which are a factor contributing to the perpetuity of educational inequity. These factors include a lack of understanding of the enormity of the inequity that exists and hence the lack of urgency in solving the problem; teaching as a profession not aspired to and normalization of class division. These major mindsets are identified as barriers towards eradicating the problem of educational inequity and the TFB model aspires to change these mindsets by challenging these beliefs as its long term vision. The process of altering mindsets is one that is very challenging and does not have a sure shot formula. It requires much thought and effort to truly change a rooted mindset of an individual, let alone an entire nation. With hopes of altering some deeply rooted mindsets surrounding education, TFB is tactfully choosing its recruitment messages. The recruitment strategies of TFB were studied and it was found that each strategy is successfully converting point of interest into registrations. The study of how effective recruitment strategies are at altering mindsets have shown that some alterations to knowledge base as well as some surface mindsets have begun changing among University students. Perception of University students surrounding teaching as a profession has also shown deviations among those students who have had interaction with TFB compared with those who have not. Analysis of the proportion of students that TFB has been able to reach revealed that more than half the sample has had some kind of interaction with TFB. v | P a g e This is quite a large proportion given the short recruitment cycle of TFB this year. However, it is likely that this result is biased due to limitations of this study. Maimuna, CEO of TFB hopes that within the next 5 years, the TFB model would have effectively started altering some of the deeply rooted mindsets that the model tries to address. This will only be possible once the TFB model starts to prove the mindsets wrong. This will happen once the inaugural Fellows of 2014 complete their 2-year Fellowship and begin transformational changes as change agents. This vision is estimated to have a time span of about 5 years. vi | P a g e Table of Content Acknowledgement ......................................................................................................................... iv Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................ v List of Tables and Figures............................................................................................................... 8 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 3 1.1 Origin of the Report .............................................................................................................. 3 1.2 Objective ............................................................................................................................... 3 1.2.1 Broad Objective .............................................................................................................. 3 1.2.2 Specific Objectives ......................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Scope ..................................................................................................................................... 3 1.4 Research Methodology .......................................................................................................... 4 1.5. Limitations ........................................................................................................................... 6 2. Company Overview .................................................................................................................... 7 2.1 Teach For Bangladesh ........................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Theory of Problem ................................................................................................................ 7 2.3 The Model and Theory of Change ........................................................................................ 9 2.4 Vision for Impact ................................................................................................................ 11 2.5 Core values .......................................................................................................................... 11 2.6 Recruitment and Selection .................................................................................................. 12 3. Literature Review...................................................................................................................... 13 4. Findings & Analysis ................................................................................................................. 16 4.1 Identify the prevailing mindsets that are identified by the TFB model .............................. 16 4.2 Study the current mindsets of University students surrounding educational realities as described by the Teach For Bangladesh model ......................................................................... 19 4.3 Study of the Recruitment strategies of TFB and evaluating its effectiveness in reaching out to University students ...............................................................................................................